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Pay Rs 30 crore to board for Luni river pollution: NGT to government

TNN | Updated: Mar 8, 2019, 11:28 IST

File pic of Luni river. The compensation will have to be paid within a month

JODHPUR: Cracking a whip on the state government, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the state government to pay an interim compensation of Rs 30 crore to the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) holding the government responsible for all the environmental devastation caused to Luni river by the textile industries in and around Balotra town. This compensation will have to be paid within a month and the government could be at liberty to recover this amount from the polluting textile units in Balotra, Bithuja and Jasole. Besides, the state government has also been directed to submit a performance guarantee of Rs 10 crore in a month so that the government appeared committed to the compliance of the directions by the NGT. With these directions, the NGT has sought a detailed step by step and time-bound action plan from the government after getting it approved by the pollution control board. The board has also been directed to ensure that only those units are allowed to operate, which have been complying with the standards laid out for their operation. Directions have also been issued that the industries will not be allowed to operate until they set up the effluent treatment plant and meet other parameters leading to control of pollution. Judicial member of the NGT, Raghvendra Singh Rathore and Satyvan Singh gave these directions while hearing a petition after receiving the report prepared by an expert committee in February. Based on this report, the tribunal had held the industrial effluent responsible for environmental and water pollution in and around the Luni river and its impact on the agriculture, flora and fauna and human beings.

The National Green Tribunal also observed that the treatment plants set up to treat the industrial effluent had not been functioning on desired parameters, which has caused this untreated water making its way directly into the river. The tribunal has directed to submit the project report in two weeks while the interim compliance report in a month’s time and has listed the matter for next hearing on April 8.